Wings of Glittering Gold
by Scarlet Lupin
Summary: There were many rumours about ancient Xerxes, the desert city whose people could grow scales and wings. Ed just wanted to get Al's body back, without their secret getting out. Being kidnapped wasn't planned, especially when the Idiot Colonel comes running to the rescue and then inevitably needs saving. Roy has a plan, become Fuhrer, save everyone. It didn't include dragons.
1. Chapter 1

Panting I blinked some rain out of my eyes before I peeked around the edge of the small stone wall I was crouched behind, jerking back when bullets pinged of the stone right next to my head. "Shit." Glancing to the side I saw Mustang slumped next to me, missing one of his gloves and listing slightly to one side in his current barley conscious state. "Shit, shit, shit." Groaning I pounded my fist against my head hoping to jar loose an idea, preferably something other than the emergency protocol. Drawing a blank, I cursed my missing automail hand, the kidnappers here apparently had some sense as taking out my alchemy had been the first thing they had done, leaving me semi-incapacitated. I couldn't even take the time to draw a circle, everything was wet with rain so it wouldn't take.

Mustang was a complication, one I could really do without right now. He and a team of MP's had mounted a rescue party and they had all been slaughtered, Mustang had come out of it with bullet wounds to his shoulder and his leg both on the left side, they didn't look too bad, the shoulder wound barely a graze. However he had also taken a blow to the head not long ago and didn't look like he was going to stay conscious much longer. He really managed to time his rescue particularly terribly as just as he had breached the outer perimeter it had started to pour with rain, quickly drenching everything, making his ignition gloves completely useless. That left me rescuing his arse as well as my own, while also trying not to get shot, with no alchemy. All in all it was looking to be as close to an emergency as I had ever come before, which was worrying as that only really left one option for our escape.

Mentally saying 'screw it', I leaned forwards slightly as I focused on the deep pulsing warmth buried inside my chest, pushing the warmth outwards I watched the world distort slightly and then my view point shifted higher. There was a brief stunned silence and as I turned, I saw all the kidnapers gawking at me. Flashing them a grin full of razor sharp teeth, I sucked in a deep breath and then released a huge swarth of bright orange/red flames. Some part of me felt bad for this but as a dragon instincts were very close to the surface and the need to be safe and keep my secret was strong enough to temporarily suppress my aversion to killing.

The screams were short lived and when silence had once again fallen, I peered down at Mustang. I briefly met wide astonished coal coloured eyes before they slid shut and Mustang finally succumbed to unconsciousness fully. Growling a quiet curse, I carefully scooped up the limp form of the Colonel with one huge gold scaled hand, minding my claws didn't graze his fragile human skin. Making one last scan to ensure I had got every last kidnapper and that none would be left to either report my current form or repeat the atrocities conducted here, I nodded my satisfaction and with a rustle of leather wings took to the sky. Circling the already burning building, I released a few more blasts of fire, just to be sure of its destruction what with the barley there drizzle the rain had become, before I tilted my wings and glided away from the smouldering pile of ruble.

Riding the thermals, so I didn't need to flap too much, helped significantly in lengthening the distance I was able to place between myself and the place where I had been held captive. So when, long after the sun had set and the moon had taken its place, my eye lids drooped for the third time in as many minutes and I felt my left wing twitch involuntarily, I decided to call it a day and starting searching for somewhere to land. A few tortuous minuets later and I was able to direct myself towards the protruding ledge of a large cave, situated three quarters of the way up a huge sheer cliff face.

Groaning I allowed my wings to relax, not even bothering to fold them properly, just letting the tension drain from my body. Carefully limping forwards while maintaining a carefully light grip on the Colonel, I made my way towards the back of the cave. Lowering myself to the ground, I gently shifted Mustang off my hand and onto the ground. Briefly concentrating I allowed the transformation to drop and after shrugging out of my signature red coat and my black under coat, I put the large red coat to one side and using my one hand and my teeth started ripping up the black one to wrap the bleeding wounds on the Colonel's shoulder and leg.

It took a while to try and bandage wounds one handed but I did my best, and as soon as the Colonel was no longer in danger of gaining an infection or bleeding out from his leg wound, I dropped my red coat over him and then made my over to the mouth of the cave. Leaning out I called up the transformation again and dropped from my perch, not really flying but sort of gracefully falling to the ground in a controlled manner. Not wanting to wast time, I swung my tail at a nearby tree and slashed at the felled giant till I had a decent pile of fire wood. Gathering the wood up in my arms, I stretched my aching wings and began struggling my way back up to the cave.

Almost collapsing in the mouth of the cave, I dropped my cargo and with limbs that grew steadily heavier with every second that passed, I managed to push a small section away and closer to the Colonel. Puffing out a pathetic little flame, I set the slightly damp wood to burning, satisfied for the moment I allowed my eyes to shut and finally relaxed, before promptly passing out, images of screaming and burning men dancing behind my eyelids.

xxx

"Shit!"

Blinking my eyes open, I searched for the source of the voice that had woken me and found the Colonel gawking at me from across the fire. Letting out a low grumble I dropped my head back down and closed my eyes again, I had not had enough sleep to deal with that yet.

Several moments passed and I was just on the edge of falling asleep again when I heard Mustang shout, "FULLMETAL!"

Internally grouching about idiot Colonels that couldn't just let a tired reptile sleep, I lifted my head and found the Colonel gripping my red coat and looking around frantically. Blinking some of the sleep from my eyes I found myself suddenly facing an angry Roy Mustang. "Beast, what happened to Fullmetal?"

Huh? Did he just...he did! I was distinctly miffed at his use of the word 'beast', however on the plus side he didn't seem to remember seeing me transform. Mentally sighing in relief at having not blown my secret, I decided to ignore his use of derogatory language just this once, as he was injured and apparently concerned for my human form.

I cocked my head to one side, trying to gauge how badly his wounds were bothering him. I could see the tension in his frame even from across the twisting flames of the camp fire. He was clutching his shoulder and hadn't made an attempt to stand up yet, and from the normally smug and egotistical man that was as good as a declaration of extreme pain. He needed rest and food, and while I couldn't force him to rest I could see about getting the pair of us something to eat. It also ment I could conveniently ignore his question.

Slowly manoeuvring my feet and legs under myself, I tested my weight on them and found them shakier than I would have liked, but better than they were hours before. Rising to a slightly crouched position, as my full height would hit the ceiling, I watched as Mustang flinched back, looking almost like a frightened child as he clutched at my coat. Frowning at that analogy, I turned and padded quietly over to the mouth of the cave. Peering out briefly I made sure there was no one was around or watching the cave before launching from my spot and unfurling my wings, gliding for a few moments just above the tree tops I listened for sounds indicating prey.

A few faint rustles caught my attention and I banked sharply towards the sound, tracking it through the woods for several minutes till a large heard of deer appeared in a clearing around a small river. Tucking my wings I dropped like a rock and with three swift movements I had one deer clamped in my teeth, one pinned under my left forepaw and had another one speared on the end of my tail. Taking a moment to crunch up the deer currently in my mouth, I ran a forked tongue over my jaws to catch any stray blood after my snack. Satiated for a moment I turned and collected the third dead deer in my other foreleg and then reared back launched myself back into the sky.

Navigating quickly back to the cave I found Roy stood at the very edge of the ledge, braced against the wall, looking a more than a bit green. Frowning I flapped my wings slowly, treading air in front of the cave, concerned about dislodging the Colonel from his precarious position if I got too close. Shifting the deer into one hand, I used my newly freed hand to gesture for the Colonel to back up. After another long second of watching me, he shuffled back a little looking more than a little strained. Rolling my eyes slightly I reached for the stubborn man and carefully scooped him up again, only now he was conscious and protesting.

"Hey! Put me down right this second! Did you hear me? I said, put me down!"

Mentally grinning at the sheer embarrassment I could hear in the Colonel's voice, I carried him all the way back to his side of the fire, having to use my wings as substitute legs as both my forelegs were busy, and then very gently lowered him back to the ground. Once he was situated I placed one of the deer next to him and then retreated some to chew on my own secondary snack.

I had long finished my deer and yet the Colonel had yet to touch his, frowning I inched closer, trying to figure out what was wrong with the deer I had caught him.

"...stupid reptile think I'm going to do with a whole raw deer, I don't have any tools for skinning or cleaning it and how am I going to cook it without a spit..."

Mentally rolling my eyes, I snatched the dead deer up and with a few deft movements skinned and sliced the deer into smaller chunks. Stabbing one with a claw, I opened my mouth and called up my flames. Not breathing the deadly fire on the animal but rather holding it close to the blisteringly hot fire, allowing the heat to cook the meat instead of charcoaling it instantly, which likely would have been the result of direct contact with my fire.

Once the meat was cooked I held it out to the astonished looking Colonel, when he didn't immediately take it, I waved it back and forth a little in front of him. Finally seeming to get the message, he reached out and carefully grabbed hold of the large chunk of meat. It was rather comical, the large hind leg was fairly big in comparison the man himself, easily the same size as his torso and he likely wouldn't even be able to eat all of it. Eyeing the rest of the deer I contemplated stealing it to help actually fill me up completely, but I figured it was only polite to wait and see if the Colonel could eat more.

After a few minutes of watching the Colonel eat I grew bored, very bored, which was never a good thing really, but I was too tired to actually go and do anything and my scales had started to itch earlier. Sighing I lifted my wing and scratched idly at my side, it was coming up on that time when I was supposed to moult my 'baby' scales and get new harder scales, my 'adult' scales.

From what I vaguely remember my bastard father telling me, a dragons first moult happened when a young dragon reached its full adult size, usually around puberty and would mark a significant growth period for my human form as well, which I was sooooooo looking forwards to. After the fist moult, scales would only be replaced if they got damaged, otherwise they remained the same. To be perfectly honest I had been expecting it for a while, but my dragon form had just continued to grow bigger and bigger. Al, despite his lack of a human body, had still been able to transform even if we didn't really understand why or how he was able to and he had already had his first moult, having reached full size around the length of three cars end to end, and yet I had long since surpassed that. I estimated myself to be somewhere around ten cars from nose to tail. Although I'd lied and told Al I was about half that and that I had had my moult.

A faint 'ping' had me turning and spotting a single glinting gold scale resting on the floor, it was about the size of a human fist. A size which was large for first moult scales, but then some of my scales reached the same size as Roy's chest, so it was small for me.

An odd noise had me turning to see Mustang eyeing the scale, mentally shrugging I lifted the scale carefully between two claws and offered it to him. He seemed surprised but accepted it anyway, and as soon as his skin came into contact with the scale I felt a strange thrum run through my body. Ignoring the odd feeling I continued to itch random spots, soon gaining a collection of large gold coloured scales. The scales where completely fire proof but not very hard, similar to stiff leather in malleability and in the protection it offered from sharp pointy things. Keeping half an eye on Mustang I watched him examine the small scale he held it with a look of deep fascination, bending it slightly and then tapping it. Rolling my eyes at his obsession I was momentarily surprised when he started talking, Mustang wasn't usually one for idle chit chat, although it abated when I realised he was just asking questions about my scales.

"Hey what is this made of? Why is it bendy? This doesn't seem like it would provide much protection from anything sharp, why is it so soft?" So on and so on the questions went, I was just about ready to crush him into the ground just to get him to be quiet when he finally seemed to realise I wasn't going to answer any of his questions and huffed "Can you even talk? Or are you just some dumb beast?"

Snarling I shot to my feet, the small spines on my back scraping the rocky ceiling and causing the cave to suddenly feel very small. Hissing, I mentally raged at the injustice of being unable to actually speak in this form. Of course dragon's had their own language but Mustang wouldn't be able to understand it, and that pissed me off. I was not some dumb beast, I had let it go the first time because he was scared, hurt and displaying concern for my human form, but now he was just insulting me because I wouldn't answer his stupid questions. Not to mention I was still sleepy earlier, now I was awake, still hungry, achy and tired not to mention my scales where itching all over now. The itch had developed from a small tickle to a burning sensation all over, that was steadily driving me up the wall. So yes I was a bit irritable right now, and when you are a tiny human faced with an enormous irritable dragon it would be wise to shut up and be quiet.

Roy Mustang was clearly not the most intelligent human around as instead of shutting up and being quiet, he scuttled back and snapped his right hand. Brilliant red flames raced forwards and caressed against my scales, warming them pleasantly and causing the itching to abate for a moment. Pausing for a second I considered what just happened, clicking my teeth together I peered down at the still shocked form of Mustang and leaned in very close.

I didn't know why his flames had soothed the itch, but it had and now I had to figure out a way to get him to do it again. Nudging him with my nose, I grunted and bobbed my head slightly, trying to convey that I wanted him to repeat his actions. From his blank look, I'm going to assume he wasn't getting the message. Growling I snapped my teeth at him and he jerked back, reacting instinctively and snapping his fingers. Delighted with the hot flames dancing on my itchy scales I let out a happy little roar, twisting so the flames could get at my back and wings.

All too soon the wonderful heat was gone and replaced with the familiar itchiness, groaning I shifted around trying to get to this one spot right between my wings that was driving me nuts. "What on earth are you doing?"

Blinking I peeked at the Colonel and to my embarrassment found him almost breathless with laughter, braced against the wall and clutching his wounded shoulder as he shook with suppressed laughter. Hissing at the amused Colonel, I was never more relieved scales didn't show blushes than I was right then. Gods how did Al deal with this level of itching, it was maddening I was almost ready to start rolling on my back just to try and get the scales between my wings.

Raking my claws down my sides, I felt a measure of relief as a dozen or so more scales clattered to the floor. I was going for the scales on my chest when the panicked shouts reached me. Pausing I frowned at where Mustang was shouting from, he looked more than a little concerned. It took a moment for me to process and then I realised what this must look like to the Colonel, who had no knowledge of dragons. It probably looked like I was trying to hurt myself. Now how to explain to him that I was fine, when he wouldn't be able to understand a word that came out of my mouth.

Yeah this was going to be fun. Not.

Thinking for a moment I reached down and lifted the small human into the air, holding him close to my chest as I reached up and prised one of the larger chest scales off, revealing the brand new gleaming gold scale beneath. I repeated this action a few times and it must have finally clicked when I heard Mustang mutter "oh you're moulting, like a lizard, I guess that makes sense." The was a longer pause and then he said "the old scales itch don't they? You look like you want to rip your own skin off, so it must be bothering you..."

Nodding morosely, I gestured vaguely at my back and shuddered in an exaggerated fashion.

"Hey so you do understand me?!"

Rolling my eyes heavenwards as I set the Colonel back on the ground, I was more than a little irritated that that was all he took from my response, but then he was a selfish bastard so really what did I expect.

"If you can understand me why haven't you answered any of my questions?"

Snorting I shot him an unimpressed stare, then opened my mouth flashing sharp fangs and a forked tongue, before silently asking him if it looked like I could give verbal answers.

Apparently he was better at translating expression than I gave him credit for, especially considering I was a dragon, and who had experience reading dragon facial expressions these days? As he flushed and nodded "yeah I guess you weren't built for human speech. Maybe if I ask yes and no questions...?"

Nodding my head, I conceded that was a good idea and then at least we could communicate to some degree.

"Okay, do you know what happened to Fullmetal?"

Tilting my head I played dumb, having not been introduced to people in this form it would be suspicious if I knew names I should have no way of knowing, hence the fake confusion.

"Ugh! Blond, male, about this tall..." I was miffed with the Colonel for only raising his arm to about chest high when indicating my height, "and he normally wears that coat." At the end he pointed at where my red coat was resting near the fire.

Making humming noise in the back of my throat I nodded my head, indicating I knew who he was referring to.

"Is he...is he okay?"

Nodding again, I was surprised by the strong relief that washed over his face as some of the tension drained from his shoulders.

"Do you know where he is?"

Another nod.

"Can you take me to him?"

This time I shook my head, after all I was already here, there was nowhere to go.

"What! Why?"

Lifting my wings slightly I let them droop against my back again.

"Your wings are tired?"

I was aiming for the motion to resemble more of a shrug, but tired wings worked well as an excuse so I just nodded my head.

"Of all the..."

Narrowing my eyes, I felt like if he had finished that sentence I would have been inclined to BBQ the man, so was somewhat pleased he had the common sense not to.

"Can you at least tell me if he's close by? And how far we are from Central?"

Nodding my head I held my hands close together, showing we were very close to both.

"Well thats good at least." Sighing and running his uninjured hand through his hair, he huffed "the pipsqueak will probably have beaten us back, and will be sat in my office, more than likely in my chair, with some smart-ass remark about me being late as usual, or slacking off..."

Choking on a laugh, that came out as more of a strange slightly strangled growling noise, I had to duck my head when he turned to me with a questioning look on his face. The pipsqueak comment was irritating, but with my moult I would hopefully be getting a growth spurt and then he wouldn't be able to call me short any more. That had been one of the things that I had worried about the most, as far as giving myself away to Al had been concerned. I thought he would realise I had lied when I didn't shoot up any after I claimed to have had my moult, but I guess as he was stuck in the armour and therefor his body didn't grow, he must have forgotten.

Slinking over to the chopped up remains of the left over deer I gestured to it while making a questioning whining sound, trying to ask if he wanted any more of it. Apparently the Colonel was full as he immediately waved his hands back and forth.

"Oh no its all yours, I am so full I could explode!"

Nodding my head I snapped up the rest of the meat, enjoying how I now felt pleasantly full. Pointing one long talon at the Colonel, then the spot where my now dry red coat was laid out by the fire, I tilted my head and closed my eyes for a long second. Opening them again I peered questioningly at the Colonel, hopefully he would understand.

"Are you...Are you telling me to go to bed?!"

Grinning impishly I was pleased he caught that and nodded smugly.

Sighing dramatically he started limping his way towards the coat muttering under his breath, "...can't believe it...being ordered around by an over grown lizard of all things...being told to go to bed at my age...who does he think he is..."

Huffing another laugh I curled up and closed my eyes, content to try and get a few more hours sleep before I flew the Colonel the rest of the way back to Central.

xxx

Flying swiftly towards the growing speck on the horizon, which was slowly starting to resemble a city, I pondered how I was going to drop the Colonel off without anyone seeing me and freaking out. At the moment my best option would be to drop him off next to the woodland road and then detour around the city, shift back into human form and then come in from a different angle.

It wasn't the best plan but it was all I could think of without risking leaving the Colonel somewhere unsafe or potentially being seen, neither of which were ideal. So when I spotted the woodland road I carefully descended from the sky, while keeping an eye out for any travellers.

Landing heavily I gently set the Colonel down, making sure he was okay and wasn't missing anything important limb wise. Rounding on me as soon as his feet touched the ground he said "hey why are you leaving me here?!" Then slightly quieter he mumbled "what is it with large winged creatures and only taking people part of the way to their goal?!"

Rolling my eyes heavenwards, I pointed at the city in the distance. Then I tapped a talon on the scales around my eyes, then made a more expansive gesture at all of myself, before finally making some cowering motions.

"Oh yeah, I suppose if they did see you they might react negatively." Sighing he turned and started limping towards the city. Waving a negligent hand over his shoulder he called "thanks for the ride."

Blowing a ring of smoke after the ungrateful Colonel's retreating back, I lifted my wings and pumped them hard to lift myself into the sky once again.

xxx

Breathing slightly heavily I flopped down into the soft leather chair behind the Colonel's desk, never more glad that everyone had been out of the office for lunch, it wouldn't have made a good surprise otherwise.

Of course there were some people I chose not to try and surprise, like Al and Winry, that was just asking for a lecture and a wrench to the head. So I had phoned them as soon as I managed to sneak into Central and get to a phone booth, for whatever reason pocket change didn't rate high on kidnappers list of things to confiscate.

I made sure to tell both of them I was fine and back in Central. Although I was shouted at for a long time by Winry when I told her I was going to need another new Automail arm, then she passed the phone to Al while she went and started packing things to bring to Central. Al Lectured me on being more careful and then told me how happy he was that I was safe again.

After a few more pleasantries I had hung up and then made a quick anonymous call about the Colonel needing a lift, before making my way to Central command. Once there I grabbed a change of clothes from my locker in the gym and had a nice long hot shower before finally dressing and stealthily infiltrating Mustangs office.

Leaning back I kicked my feet up on his desk and waited patiently, I figured he would be done charming his way out of the hospital by now. Sure enough after a few minutes I could hear the Colonel's voice from the other side of the door, "...really lieutenant I'm fine I just need to check something in my office..."

The door swung open and I felt a shit eating grin slip onto my face as Mustang appeared in the doorway. "You're late."

"I was delayed. By a dragon."

Smirking I replied "really? I always knew you were a princess at heart, all that delegating work and not doing any yourself."

"You little shit! Get out of my chair."

"Whatever you say your highness." Swallowing my laughter at the Colonel's inarticulate growling, I stood up and slipped around the desk, choosing to flop heavily onto one of the couches instead.

"Edward! You're back! Have you been to the hospital to get your injuries seen to?"

Smiling at the Lieutenant, who was loitering in the doorway I replied "ha what injuries? I am perfectly fine. I'm not the one thats useless in the rain after all."

"Fullmetal..." The warning tone was completely lost on me as I had no fear of the Colonel, I was fire proof after all.

"Edward..." Wincing slightly I ducked my head and muttered a quite apology, I was significantly less bullet proof in this form. Not to mention the Lieutenant was a woman, those strange and mysterious creatures were beyond terrifying, Winry and Teacher were other examples of this fact of life.

"Oh so you listen to her?!"

Rolling my eyes I chose to ignore the Colonels words and instead asked "so how did you get back to the city then?"

"I told you, there was a dragon!"

"Sir..." The Lieutenant sounded exasperated so this was obviously not the first time he talked about 'the dragon' in seriousness.

"Yeah right, dragons don't exist."

The frustrated scowl on his face lifted slightly and he pulled a gleaming plate of gold from his pocket, about the size of a fist and smooth with a slight curve to it the object appeared to be an extremely oversized reptile scale. A very familiar scale. Oops.

"Here is proof! A scale from the dragon that saved me."

Snorting I put on a false expression of doubt and said "just looks like shaped gold to me."

"Well it isn't!"

Rolling my eyes I decided to change the subject, "should you really be walking around on that leg?"

"How did you know about my leg?!"

"I was there Colonel. I was the one to drag your sorry ass to some cover, so you didn't get even more bullet holes in you when you took that bit of flying rubble to the back of your head. Remember?"

"Oh."

"Yeah 'oh'."

"Then you must have seen the dragon it was there too."

"Would you quit it with the dragon thing!"

"What dragon thing?"

"AL!"

"Brother, I'm so happy you're okay!"

"How did you get here so fast?"

"I left as soon as you called, the train ride just seemed to fly by."

Ah he had shifted and flown, if a train ride 'flew by' it was code for one of us flying in our dragon form. "Well as you can see Al I am all in one piece, mostly, and unharmed except for my arm..."

"Yes I heard you destroyed another of my beautiful works of art, Ed." The comment was accompanied by a flying wrench, which I didn't bother to duck. Avoiding the first wrench just ment she would throw more till she hit me and she wouldn't start fixing my automail till she hit me, so it was just easier to let her hit me the first time.

Groaning as I laid on the floor where I had fallen from the sofa, I just waited for someone else to say something, I was too tired to think too much right now. I just wanted a long nap and maybe some food, but definitely sleep first.

"Oh well would you look at that, now your head is bleeding Fullmetal. I guess now you can come with me back to the hospital so you can get that checked out."

Sighing I didn't bother to protest, just flopped my flesh arm over my face. "Whatever, I'm too tired for this shit."

"Wow brother really must be tired if he isn't putting up a fight about going to the hospital."

"That just has me even more concerned for his mental health, maybe I shouldn't hit him so much with that wrench...nah I'm sure he'll be fine."

Rolling my eyes I dragged myself to my feet and stomped towards the door, "you lot coming or what? My arm isn't going to fix itself..."

Winry was the first to move, closely followed by Al with Mustang and Hawkeye bringing up the rear.

xxx


	2. Chapter 2

"Why did you even have to disconnect the nerves in the first place!?"

"Because Ed replacing your hand while your arm is attached is unnecessarily difficult, this way was much easier and probably quicker too."

"Yeah but now you have to reattach it."

"Are you...are you seriously whining about having your arm reattached?"

"What no!"

"You are! You little baby!"

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE CALLING SMALL ENOUGH DROWN IN A RAINDROP?!"

Snorting and flicking her blonde hair out of her face Winry appeared completely unfazed by my outburst, just lifting the wrench still in her hand as she said "don't shout at me Edward Elric. I didn't think you were such a wimp about a little pain, but if it bothers you that much I can always knock you out."

Wincing I could tell from her face she didn't mean with drugs, shifting my gaze quickly to heavy duty metal monkey wrench in her fist I decided to just accede to her point and not fight about it, I did not want or need any more damage done to my already battered and bandaged skull. Ducking my head slightly I heaved a quiet sigh and said "just attach the nerves already would you?!"

"Fine."

One swift jerk of the spanner and fire raced up my arm, I had to bite my lip to stop a shout escaping me as the nerves were reconnected. No matter how many times I did this, the hot and cold burning sensation running up and down my limb as the nerves got used to being connected to something again still shocked me and always threatened to crack my carefully crafted mask of strength and pride. Breathing slowly through my nose I forced myself to ride through the shockwaves of pain lancing up my arm and focused on where Winry was now wiping some grease off one of her spanners, presumably the one she had just been using, and studiously ignoring me.

As the pain ebbed I started slowly curling my newly restored hand into a fist, testing the flex and give in the metal appendage. Pleased with the results, I shot a brief smirk at Winry where she was stood packing away her tools. "Great job as always Win."

"Yeah well at least try and pretend to let the nerves settle this time won't you? Normal people don't recover from limb reattachment as quickly as you do."

"Yeah yeah sure thing." I could practically see her rolling her eyes despite the fact she was facing away from me, realising this was a good opportunity to bring up my impending growth spurt, I quickly sat up and called out "hey Win?"

"What now Ed?"

"Uh just a heads up, I have a feeling I'm going to be out-growing my leg soon and probably my arm too."

"What do you mean...Oh! Really? Thats great, it took you long enough."

Sticking my tongue out at her back, I ignored Winry's techno babble as she started planning out modification she could make to my limbs while redesigning them, our earlier spat completely forgotten in her excitement.

I was contemplating if it would be worth re-igniting Winry's rage to remind her, with proof now, that I wasn't a baby, however before I could come to a conclusion the door swung open and Al poked his head into the room.

"Brother are you and Winry done in here?"

Rolling my eyes at how Al made it sound like me and Winry had been up to nefarious things I just nodded and replied "yeah Al all done!"

"Oh good because the Colonel wanted to talk to you, about the...dragon. Really brother I am quite intrigued as well, you'll have to tell me everything that happened."

Wincing at the slightly sarcastic lilt to Al's metallic sounding voice, I offered a weak grin and said "dragon? What dragon? I don't remember seeing a dragon."

The sigh Al released was one I was intimately familiar with. It ment 'I am heavily disappointed in you, however you're my older brother and I love you, but sometimes I still want to hit you.'

Lifting my chin I straightened my back as I mentally shrugged and strolled past Al, "well better not keep Colonel Bastard waiting, who knows what other odd delusions he might come up with if left unattended." With that parting comment thrown over my shoulder I quickly left the room, intent on finding Mustang and seeing just how bad the damage was, it would be bad if he started telling everyone about the big gold dragon he saw. Most people would think he's gone nuts but some might believe him and that right there is when we would start having real problems. So it was pretty lucky I had a damn good cover story.

Striding down the hall towards the Colonel's hospital room, I made sure to put my usual cocky mask in place well before I reached the opened doorway, my mouth lifting on one side in a sarcastic smirk and snarked "well hello there Colonel princess. What was it you needed me for?"

"Fullmetal. I want your report on what happened at the warehouse, I was not conscious enough to remember much and the MP's I brought with me are clearly not available to question."

"Sure. You remember when you stormed in and then immediately got soaked and useless?"

"...Yes. I remember Fullmetal." The way he bit out those words made me feel almost smug for needling him so successfully, I got ridiculous amounts of joy from winding him up.

"Well while you were doing that and distracting the guards, I was escaping my cell and setting up some of my absolute favourite kind of delayed arrays inside, the explosive ones...

 **~FLASHBACK~**

 _Blinking long blond strands of hair, that had escaped from my braid, out of my eyes I listened intently for sounds of guards nearby and when I could hear nothing save the loud pounding of my own heart I decided to make my move. Biting down hard on my thumb till I tasted blood I quickly got to work tracing the first of two arrays, one to create a simple spear and there by arm myself, while the second would be to deconstruct the iron door to my cell._

 _I always hated working in my own blood, it reminded me far to much of the night I bound Al to the armour, however I didn't exactly have much of a choice here. Its not like I ever carried chalk around anymore anyway, not that the kidnappers would have let me keep it, so it was blood or nothing._

 _Blue energy still crackling and dissipating I stood up, spear griped in my flesh hand and strode over to the door, a moment later I was stepping over its deconstructed remains and marching down the hallway. Spear swinging lightly at my side, I mentally grouched over the pathetic lack of guards and security present, honestly what would it take for a guy to get a decent fight around here, I was practically itching to break some noses after having my hand sawed off. Although the plus side of not seeing any guards was that I had time to paint a whole bunch of arrays into the walls, the design was rather ingenious as they were only half an array and when the other half was drawn up and activated it activated the other half at the same time, completely irrespective of the distance between the two halves._

 _Throwing myself back behind the corner I had just stomped around, I winced as the hail of bullets continued to pound into the wall next to me for several long seconds before they slowed to a stop. Back braced against the wall I struggled to get my breathing back under control after the minor heart attack I just had, so much for pathetic security, clearly they all just really loved this hallway. 'Come on Elric get it together!' Pounding a fist against the wall I lifted my spear and gave it a quick spin, the cold feel of iron against my skin helping to ground me in the moment._

 _Just as I was getting ready to make a run for it and hope for the best, an almost deafening alarm sounded, sirens blaring and a grating female voice screeching -BREACH IN OUTER PERIMETER- over and over._

 _Taking this as my chance, I peeked around the corner and found all the guards shouting at each other over the alarm and clearly arguing on wether they should go after the intruder or the escapee. Well I was about to solve that problem for them._

 _Darting around the corner I started running straight towards the shouting halfwits and was almost on top of them before they noticed me. Swinging my spear in a low sweeping motion just above the ground, I managed to knock four of the guards into the wall and two more quickly tripped over their fallen friends. One plus I found to this close quarters fighting was it made getting back up off the floor extremely difficult and on the rare occasion that the bad guys had any morals, they were less inclined to shoot for fear of hitting their allies._

 _Remaining in motion constantly and tripping as many guards as I could, I found myself actually holding my own, right up until one of the guards fired their gun into the chest of the moron standing next to me. Thats when I decided to just book it and not worry too much about actually fighting these brainless dolts, because while imbeciles they may be, they had guns and Hawkeye had taught me an idiot with a gun was an especially bad combination._

 _Vaulting over the back of one guard making a decent attempt at getting up, I took off down the hallway, thanking my lucky stars that bad guys always had shit aim, as three bullets pinged off the ground less than an inch from my pounding feet and one grazed my left leg._

 _Pushing myself harder I practically bounced of the wall as I careened around the next corner, not hesitating in the slightest as I ploughed through a pair of guards loitering outside a door. I was seriously hoping this was an exit, however when I opened the door I only got about two stepped into the room before the sight in front of me registered and then I was spinning around, diving back into the hallway and slamming the door shut behind me. Sliding my spear through the handle and wedging it against the door jam I was backing up slightly and trying very hard to get my heart back into my chest and out of my throat when the two guards I had knocked over made there presence known._

 _Slamming the blunt and broken end of my automail right arm into the side of idiot no.1's head, I spun away from idiot no.2 before planting my left boot in the middle of his chest and sending him flying into the wall. He didn't get back up. Continuing my mad dash I could seriously feel my energy reserves flagging, it had been a long day before I got kidnapped and now I was escaping and fighting for my life, fortunately it only took three more hallways and a staircase I vaguely remembered from my drugged trip through here on my way in, before I found the little window. I didn't really care much at this point that I was probably going to regret this later, I just charged towards my freedom and smashed straight through the thick double glazed glass._

 _I relished the wind hitting my face and causing my coat to flap, the cold rain was a bit of a slap in the face, waking me up slightly and giving me the forethought to tuck and roll as I hit the ground so I didn't break any bones on impact. The vibrations were still jarring but at least not too damaging and I was able to spring to my feet as soon as I had solid ground under my feet again._

 _Swiping wet gold hair out of my eyes I searched for a way out of the warehouse courtyard and industrial estate, only to pause when heard several loud cracks just as I spotted a splash of familiar blue fabric out of the corner of my eye. Turning all the way round I was just in time to watch the MP hit the ground, quickly followed by two more. There was a quiet 'whoosh' and a stuttery pillar of flame flickered to life, only to die out in seconds as it was drowned by the rain pouring from the sky in torrents._

 _Backing up slightly I ducked under the short overhang, pausing just long enough to paint the second half of my array onto the wall and then bracing myself activated it before running for it. The ominous rumbling from behind me told me I probably should stop to look, instead I just kept running, straight towards where I last saw that small burst of fire._

 _I spotted Mustang just as a smallish chunk of concrete connected with the back of his skull, staggering he somehow managed to avoid the majority of the bullets flying towards him but still took one in the leg, which sent him to the ground, just as one grazed his shoulder. Putting on another little burst of speed, I grabbed the Colonel's arm and dove for a huge chunk of what must have been wall at some point. Gasping for air as I slumped to the ground I started trying to figure out a way out of this situation because it was looking pretty grim right now._

 **~END FLASHBACK~**

"...then I got up and unleashed my secret weapon." I could feel Al tense up behind me, having wondered in near the beginning of the story, he probably thought I was going to spill the beans, but I had other plans that didn't involve dropping that particular bomb. "I used flame alchemy."

"I saw a split second of panic on Roy's face before it was chased away by doubt. "And how exactly did you manage that? With no clap alchemy and all of that rain I find it hard to believe, let alone the fact no one else had been able to figure out how to work my array and your lack of anything to make a spark with."

Smirking I said "my method is a little different to yours." Clapping my hands together I maintained the circle as I concentrated on forcing two molecules to vibrate so hard against each other that the friction they created caused them to catch fire, which with a little oxygen manipulation quickly formed a controlled fireball. Lifting my head I smirked at everyone shell shocked expressions.

"How did you do that?!"

Flashing my signature smug grin, I said "well I don't know if your tiny brain can comprehend it, but what I did was vibrate two molecule till the friction made fire."

"Thats...thats incredible!"

"I know." Buffing my nails on my coat in my best 'smug bastard' impression I let the fireball dissipate as I added "and incase you were wondering...I painted the array on my chest with blood, it being one of the few arrays I know that doesn't need direct contact with the ground and there fore viable. My blood wouldn't stick on the metal it was too wet, not to mention Winry would kill me if I got blood in the gears of her precious automail, and I couldn't use my automail to paint the array on my other hand as it didn't have a fine enough edge for the lines of the circle."

I had no intention of telling the Colonel that my skin had been far to wet to draw on either, or the fact we had been about a minute from being surrounded and that I wouldn't really have had time to paint the extremely complex array. I knew it usually took me about thirty to forty seconds to draw an array that complex on flat paper with a pencil, the time increased with less favourable conditions and we likely would have been shot to pieces before I could finish it.

"Typical Fullmetal. Just when I think I start to have you figured out, you go and surprise the hell out of all of us. Although I still don't know how you missed seeing the enormous gold dragon."

Shrugging and trying to make it sound natural I said "Yeah I know I'm just that incredible, maybe my awesome fire show is what made you think you saw a dragon, they are sort of known for it. I thought you had passed out by the time I started flinging fire around, but maybe you were still conscious and saw just enough for your brain to make up the rest."

"I didn't make it up! I am very sure it was real, it gave me one of its shed scales. How do you explain us getting separated then? If not a dragon."

For a second I panicked, I had no idea how I could explain it and I could feel Al's burning gaze on my back, I was so going to get lectured later, then inspiration struck. "Well after I incinerated the warehouse I treated your injuries as best I could, then I did a quick search to check for survivors and see if any of the MP's made it and when I came back you were gone. I didn't see any signs a dragon had been there, but maybe I missed them?" I made sure to sound suitably sceptical so they didn't think I actually believed I had somehow missed the appearance of a mythical creature.

Carefully picking up where I left off, I concluded "I thought you might have been snatched by a survivor of the warehouses untimely explosion, but I couldn't find any signs of you to follow so I decided to get here as quick as possible and call for help. As it turns out you didn't even need it."

"Well that is certainly something, I expect a written copy of your report on my desk tomorrow morning. You're dismissed."

Nodding I quickly escaped the hospital room, almost jogging down the hall, as I attempted to flee before a nurse could try and make me stay or..."brother."

Freezing I tried to smooth out my hunched up posture and act nonchalant, I knew it was futile but I tried anyway, "Al! What's up? I was just going to head to the dorms, I'm beat! Honestly I think I could sleep for a week."

"Oh good I'll come with, we need to have a little chat."

Wilting I nodded "yeah okay then."

* * *

 **AN: So how was it? I know it was a bit shorter than the first chapter, but then I wrote this whole chapter in about five hours and the first chapter I tinkered with for about three months before I bothered posting it. So any way I didn't think everyone would want to wait that long for an update, so here it is and I hope you enjoyed it.**

 **-SL xxx**

 **PS. I would love to here what you all think was in the room Ed barricaded shut in the warehouse flashback, leave your ideas in a review.**

 **PPS. Thank you all so much for reading xxxx**


	3. Chapter 3

"I just don't know what you were thinking brother! Being seen by the Colonel was incredibly risky and now he is going to be investigating this. You know him better than to expect him to just drop it, it's not in his nature. Oh, this is a disaster!"

Leaning back slightly I continued to watch Al pace back and forth across the dorm room, his lecture forgotten as he continued to fret in a downward spiral of negativity that was incredibly unlike him.

"I know it was risky Al, but I didn't really have a lot of choices. My story was airtight so he has no reason to be suspicious of us, we just need to lay low for a little while, avoid flying till all this blows over then everything will go back to normal, end of story. It will be fine Al."

Facing me head on Al grumbled, "I don't know brother, I just have a really bad feeling about this."

"Ah, you worry too much." Flapping my hands in a lazy gesture I flopped backwards on the bed, laying sprawled on my back I eyed the ceiling and repeated "it will be fine."

I really should have known better.

 **Time skip ~ one week later**

Sprawled on the couch I watched Al through half-lidded eyes as he attempted to crack the code I made, we used to do this when we were little kids a lot as practice for cracking our father's codes. It was a good way to unwind, however, Al had been stuck on this part of the code for a day and a half so far and he was clearly beginning to get frustrated with it. I admit I felt pride whenever Al managed to crack my codes but I also got a strange amount of enjoyment from watching him struggle with my work, it made me feel smart I guess.

Stretching a bit and raking a hand through my hair I decided I should probably get some food it was nearing lunchtime, maybe some tea as well. Rolling off the couch and strolling into the kitchen I started making a sandwich and put some tea on to boil, I had barely taken a bite of my lunch when someone knocked on the door.

Who the fuck would be coming to see us?

Frown firmly planted on my face I stalked on silent feet back into the living room and then over to the door, ready to shout at whoever had interrupted my relaxing afternoon. Unless it was an emergency, or someone bringing me more food or books then all would be forgiven. If not, well...

 **Roy POV**

It had been nearly a whole week since the failed rescue attempt and the Elric brothers had me worried. They had been remarkably quiet, no complaints of willful property destruction from civilians and they've been avoiding the office. Usually, if they're not out on a mission, they like to hang around in the outer office disrupting the work of my team and harassing me for leads on a philosophers stone. But I've yet to see them at all since they left right after we got back into Central. Frankly, I'm a bit concerned, this is definitely very odd behaviour for Fullmetal. If he has a problem he normally just comes to shout at me about it, he most definitely doesn't avoid me and brood.

Standing and grabbing the cane I had to use till my leg healed up I limped slowly out of my office, offering a lazy wave to Falman when he leapt to his feet at my entrance and called out, "come on Havoc I need you to drive me, I'm going out."

Not looking nearly as surprised as I thought he would and not wanting to question a chance to get away from his paperwork, he stood and with a far too cheerful sounding "bye guys" followed me out of the main outer office and then out into the command building proper. I had a pair of brooding alchemists to visit and I refused to acknowledge the pair of glaring eyes belonging to a certain sniper that were boring a hole into my back. It was almost lunchtime anyway, not like I left in the middle of the afternoon.

Setting into the back of the military car I slouched slightly and tried to think up an excuse to talk to the boys, I didn't have a new mission for them I was just curious why they were avoiding the office. I was still deep in thought when the car came to a stop and the engine turned off. It was around then I realised I never told Havoc where we were going and I hoped he hadn't just driven us to the nearest restaurant, peering out the window I was surprised to see ourselves outside the dorms. It was times when I was so glad I had people on my team like Havoc.

Slipping out of the car I stiffly made my way into the building and up to the second floor where the boys lived on the odd occasion they actually stayed in Central long enough to need accommodations.

Approaching number 32b I was completely unsurprised to spot what looked like a boot print in the middle of the door, rolling my eyes I brought my fist to bear on the door. Barely five seconds passed before the door was wrenched open and I was faced with a casually dressed Fullmetal alchemist. It was a bit odd really. Ed was barefoot, only wearing grey sweatpants and a black vest, not to mention his hair was loose and hanging around his shoulders. It was definitely strange and left the back of my neck feeling uncomfortably warm.

The sensation quickly left when Ed opened his mouth and growled "why the fuck are you here Colonel bastard?" Ah there was the Fullmetal we all knew and loved to torment with short jokes.

Fixing my usual smirk and mask of indifference on my face I replied "just checking to make sure my youngest subordinate is still alive. You are actually supposed to report to me at least once a week and I know how you are about rules and regulations so I thought I would just come myself, saves time in the long run."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean bastard?"

"Don't you worry your pretty little mind about it, I'm sure the technicalities of military rules would go straight over your head anyway so it would be a waste to explain it..."

I didn't get to finish as Ed very predictably exploded over the subtle height barbs I wove into my speech although having said that I could have sworn I had to look down more last time I spoke to Ed. He isn't actually growing is he?! Oh god, he'll be unbearable.

"Oi Colonel Bastard are you even listening to me?!"

"Of course Fullmetal I always listen to your long height insecurity induced rants, it is the highlight of my week and is entirely the only reason I came to see you."

Golden eyes stared me down for a solid five seconds and during those very long seconds I thought I might have pushed a bit too far and I wondered how I could fix it but then a smirk slid across his face and he snapped "careful there Colonel your sarcasm was showing, people might begin to think you actually have a sense of humour."

Relieved I replied without thinking too much about what I said "oh har har you're one to talk. If the rest of the office saw you now they might actually think you do things other than destroying public property and read books."

Fullmetal snorted and turned his back on me, strolling back into his apartment and leaving the front door wide open. "Well? You coming in or what? I was just making lunch, you can join me."

Locking eyes with the blond when he glanced over his shoulder I couldn't quite stifle the surprised noise that escaped me at this odd slightly backhanded gesture of politeness, "uh...yes thank you. Havoc drove me over would it be alright if he joined us as well?" I scrambled to get my distant mask back up, that little offer there had completely thrown me for a loop, Fullmetal just didn't do things like that. Frankly, I had kinda been expecting him to slam the door in my face and send me packing, especially after that last comment of mine. Oh well, best not to dwell on it, he would likely be back to his usual behaviour soon enough.

"Yeah sure whatever," he replied, waving a negligent hand at me as he vanished into what I presumed was the kitchen.

Leaning back out the door I called Havoc over from his spot at the end of the hallway and then slipped back inside, Havoc would shut the door after himself. This time I managed to actually get further into the apartment and spotted Alphonse sitting at the desk in the corner, hulking armour hunched over a notebook, a distinctly frustrated air emanating from him.

Polite smile once more back in place I called out "hello Alphonse."

The younger brother jerked in surprise and whipped around in surprise, however, there was genuine pleasure in his voice as he replied, "oh hello Colonel, did you come to see brother?" Humming I nodded, noting with interest the hint of suspicion entering his voice as he asked quietly "what did brother do now?"

Waving my hand I assured him "nothing at all, at least not to my knowledge, I just came to make sure he was still alive, you two haven't been to the office all week."

Finally deciding to put his two cenz in Havoc chipped in from near the door, "yeah we were beginning to worry about you guys, you're nearly always around but none of us have seen you at all this week, it's been weird. I think Fury was beginning to think you were avoiding us all or something, should'a seen his face, all sad and mopey..."

"Oh I'm sorry, its just brother made a new code and I've been so busy trying to crack it I completely forgot to nag him to socialise! I will get right back on that, we should be back in the office causing mischief next week, you can reassure Fury we weren't avoiding anyone, just busy. Hopefully, I'll finish decoding this tonight, I think I've almost got it solved now."

"Boss makes codes?" I had to admit I was curious as well, I was aware most alchemists new how to code and decode research as it was the best way to safeguard your work in that line of business, however, I didn't know Fullmetal was particularly proficient in it.

"Yeah brother and I used to do this all the time, it was good practice when we had to decode some of our father's research, now it's just more of a game to see who can stump the other for longer. Ed usually wins, I've been stuck on this for nearly two days now..."

Now I was really curious, "may I see?"

"Sure sir, here you go."

Accepting the notebook from the younger brother I examined the work before me and I had to admit I was stumped, I had no idea how I would go about decoding this, it didn't appear to have any kinds of patterns that I could tell apart and the text all seemed to flow naturally in fact if I hadn't been told it was alchemy research I wouldn't have had a clue. Holding the book back out I smiled and said "that's impressive, if you hadn't told me what it was I never would have guessed it was coded at all."

"Thanks." I would never admit that Ed's voice startled me or that it took me a second longer than normal to get my polite unruffled mask back up, fortunately, Havoc was good at covering for me even without knowing he needed to.

"Hey Boss, how ya been?"

Turning around I found myself watching in fascination as Edward juggled three plates with sandwiches on them as he replied "good, catching up on research, there was a branch of oxygen manipulation I was interested in investigating further that could let you fly...or fall slowly anyway."

"No way alchemy can do that?!" Accpeting my plate from the blond I had to admit sometimes watching people exclaim over the possibilities of alchemy made me feel just a little bit proud to have reached where I was with the science, because I could work out what Edward was talking about and yes that could work, I had no idea how he would go about doing it but it should, in theory, be possible to increase the air density below your self and form a sort of cussion to prevent damage from falling a large distance, of course the bigger the drop the more air you would need to manipulate as a buffer.

Shaking my head and trying to force my wayward thought back on track I set about subtly searching the apartment for any reasons why the brothers had been avoiding the office, because while both were heavily inclined to get wrapped up in research they were both motivated enough by the philosopher's stone to come pester me for leads, that they hadn't recently was worrying.

 **Ed pov**

I was engrossed in explaining to Havoc the theory behind how you could float with alchemy when I noticed Roy pick up our father's book of dragon lore research, it was all coded fortunately but not heavily. Mustang needed to be distracted and now, a brief peek at Al showed he had gone back to trying to break my code so no help there then. Grimacing I really hated to do this but it was necessary and so with a heavy heart I carefully started nudging the conversation towards dating and girls, making a joke about how Havoc could 'fall' for as many women as he liked without getting hurt if he only knew alchemy and sure enough as soon as Havoc mention one of his recent catches Mustang perked right up and was suddenly all ears as he sauntered over, incredibly interested in this woman and her bust size the book was forgotten on the side table where he found it.

Nose crinkling with disgust at the rather vulgar question and answer session going on between the two men I decided to make a tactical withdrawal and quickly made for Al hoping he would be able to provide a suitable distraction.

Swiping the book on the way past I slid it back into its proper place on the bookcase and then knocked the back of my fist on Al's shoulder to get his attention, "Hey Al?"

"Hm yes, brother?"

"Can you help me distract these two a bit, Mustang was poking around dad's dragon book and I would rather he didn't."

"Sure thing brother I'll be over in a minute I've almost got this code anyway, it's the pronouns, isn't it? I noticed they change occasionally when they shouldn't."

Smirking at my brother I didn't say anything as I retreated back to the two men, still discussing women, sat on the couch and eating sandwiches. Truth this was weird.

Finally seeming to notice I had joined them again Havoc tried to pull me into the conversation by asking "hey Boss are you more of a boob or butt man?"

Shrugging slightly I mutter "butt probably, never really thought about it before."

"What?! You don't know what your type is?"

"Meh I really not that fussy, I guess I would like someone I can actually hold an intelligent conversation with, so they would probably need to be an alchemist or at least smart enough to know what I'm talking about at any rate. But yeah looks aren't really my thing, I mean I don't even really care if its a man or a woman."

Havoc's face went a very interesting shade of red as he choked on his bite of sandwich, wheezing out "you're gay!?"

Rolling my eyes heavenwards I grouched "bi not gay, but whatever."

"You surprise me Fullmetal, you just seem to give off the impression that you want to murder everyone you look at, so I just assumed you hadn't grown up enough to be interested in any kind of relationship yet."

Swallowing my irritation at the Colonel's comment I just gave a mild shrug of my shoulders as I snatched up the empty plates and ferried them back into the kitchen, as I did I could hear Al very politely and subtly telling Havoc and Mustang to fuck off and after a few minutes, I distinctly heard the front door click shut. Peeking out of the kitchen I was relieved to see them both gone, "damn that was a bit closer than I would have liked! From now on we really need to keep that book away and out of sight of guests.

xxx

I was grumpy and I knew it but I really couldn't help it, I was suffering! The whole growth spurt thing sounded great until you had to deal with the pain from the accelerated growth. God, it felt like someone was shoving red-hot spikes through my bones, almost as bad as the first time I shifted only now there was no release, the shooting pain lasted hours before I'd get a breather and then it would start up somewhere else. So while it was awesome that I had actually needed to use alchemy to lengthen my trousers, I was currently in a foul mood, probably not helped by the fact that my automail now definitely needed to be replaced and until Winry got in tomorrow I would be stuck limping everywhere. It was humiliating.

Growling quietly when I felt another stab of pain in my right leg I glared harder at the paper and tried my best to ignore the pain and continue working on the new array I was trying to come up with, of course, I wouldn't normally need to draw out the circle to use it but it might be nice to get it stitched into some clothing or something just in case another kidnapping incident happened.

Halfway through drawing a perfect circle, my arm jolted as my bicep muscles cramped violently. Hissing I threw my pencil down against the table and tried to rub the tension and pain away. It wasn't working very well.

The vague sense of someone hovering near my commandeered desk had me turning and snapping a particularly waspish "WHAT?!"

Fury flinched and mumbled, "I was just wondering if you were alright Edward you just don't seem yourself this morning."

"Oh I'm just peachy!" Spotting the downtrodden and slightly hurt expression on Fury's face I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face, huffing out a breath and trying to make myself sound less harsh when I spoke next, "I'm sorry Fury I don't mean to be to snappish today I'm just in pain right now and that makes me more sh...sh...shor...t tempered than normal."

"You're in pain?! Do you need to go to the hospital, Ed? Is this why you've been limping?"

"Wha?! No no no I'm fine its just growing pains, I've grown three inches in a week! Which is awesome but it hurts like nobodies business and now I need to get my automail changed, that's why I've been limping slightly."

"Oh well as long as you're okay then." Turning away the raven-haired man hurried away and back to his desk, probably so Hawkeye wouldn't shoot him for shirking his paperwork. Snorting to myself I tried to go back to working on my array but my mind just would not settle down, it kept jumping from idea to idea and would stop long enough for me to get anything done.

Finally giving up on getting any work done I shoved the pencil back in its pot and slumped forwards on the desk, pillowing my head with my arms and closing my eyes. If I couldn't think properly I'd just have a quick nap, the pain in my leg had kept me up last night so I was well overdue for a nap anyway. In retrospect that was probably another reason for my poor mood this morning.

* * *

 **AN: Okay and here it is chapter three! Hazar it is completed god this took forever to get out I am so sorry I got stuck at about a thousand words for like two weeks and it was horrendous and then I spent four hours on Pinterest looking at funny little FMA memes and got so inspired that I got another thousand words out that evening then I got stuck again! I am terrible at this I'm always writing myself into corners honestly! So I used some dialogue prompts and then everything just sort of seemed to slide into place, it was very nice actually.**

 **I never plan my fics, this is all just off the top of my head so sometimes I write in plot holes by mistake and I'm so sorry, if you guys spot any point them out in comments and I'll try and come up with a flashback or something that will explain why some things are the way they are. Also, I'm sorry this has turned out to be a stupidly long author's note. Anyway, thank you for reading this please drop a review on your way out thanks!**

 **-SL xxx**


	4. Chapter 4

Yawning widely I sat up and tried to subtly work some of the kinks out of my back from sleeping hunched over my desk, blinking around myself once I was a bit more awake I finally noticed Havoc and Breda staring at me. Scowling I snapped "what?!"

Rolling his unlit cigaret around his mouth a bit before he replied Havoc sounded part curious and part incredulous as he remarked "did you know you purr in your sleep? We thought you were snoring to start with but nope you were definitely purring it was kinda cute, to be honest."

"I don't purr! That's ridiculous!"

"No no you were definitely purring it was adorable! Like a little kitten." Breda was cracking up so bad it was a marvel he got the whole sentence out in one go but I was beginning to get more irritated now the first initial flash of embarrassment had faded some.

Narrowing my eyes at the pair I rolled my shoulders and stood from my chair, it had taken a lot of practice but I had mastered the art of looming over people from a distance, this was mostly because I couldn't actually loom over people up close when I had to look up at them. So glaring the two men down with moderate ease, I managed to get both men to stop laughing without actually saying anything else and then with a pointed look at Mustang's door, where Hawkeye's voice could clearly be heard, I said "don't you two have paperwork you should be getting back to?"

Cringing and shooting the door vaguely terrified looks both men jumped to get back to reading and signing paperwork, neither one paying me any mind as I stretched again, letting out a soft moan when I finally felt my back pop and click back into place, before exiting the office and making for the coffee machine down the corridor because the mess hall's coffee sucked. Badly.

I was still glaring at the stupid machine waiting for it to spit out the damn hot liquid I needed to wake myself up again when I heard the office door open and shut again. Peeking up through my bangs I was mildly irritated to spot Mustang pause after shutting the door and the begin making his way towards me as soon as he spotted me loitering in front of this damned infernal machine. One I was seriously beginning to consider turning into scraps in a minute if it didn't hurry the hell up.

"Fullmetal!"

Oh good nevermind it was too late to escape now anyway. I still wanted that coffee though, if I was going to have to deal with Colonel bastard I needed to be properly awake.

Mustang opened his mouth to speak again and I was quick to hold up a hand to stall him, relived as the machine finally relinquished my drink. Grabbing the cup I downed half in one go, flinching and shuddering slightly at the scalding temperature and then took another smaller mouthful swallowing and pausing for a second to allow the caffeine to reach my previously sleep-fogged brain. Sighing I waved my hand for Mustang to continue hoping whatever he wanted was brief so I could go and get something to eat, I had no idea what time it was or even where Al was but my stomach said it was food time so I was gonna go get some take out after this.

"Fullmetal, I have another lead for you, regarding a rather innovative medical alchemist, he might be able to help you and your brother, speaking of which do you know where your brother is? He should probably be here for the briefing if he's going to accompany you like normal."

Shrugging slightly I mumbled around my coffee "not sure but I can make a good guess for where he could be. I'll go find him and come back."

"See that you do so quickly."

Narrowing my eyes I glared at the Colonels back as he returned to the office and then I downed the rest of my coffee, chucking the cup at the little bin next to the machine and then made a beeline for the stairs leading to the roof.

xxx

As expected I found Al perched on the edge of the roof staring off into the distance, looking all moody and sullen. Smirking as I strolled over I called a cheery "hey Al guess what!"

"Brother!" I noticed Al sounded only slightly better than he had looked, but not nearly as broody as I had expected, he got like this sometimes and he always made for high ground when he was upset. "What is it?"

Flicking my braid over my shoulder I exclaimed "we have a new lead, Colonel bastard wants to brief us now so let's go already, I can't wait to get out of this dump!"

"Brother."

Wincing at Al's chiding tone I flapped my hand slightly and turned to make a beeline for the door when Al spoke again, "you know brother I was reading dad's book again and it mentioned something about getting a growth spurt after a dragon has its first moult. You've been growing a lot recently brother, you wouldn't happen to have something to tell me would you?"

"Um okay so maybe I was exaggerating a bit before when I said I had my moult but I just didn't want to worry you! Seventeen is late to moult!"

"Brother..."

I had to cut Al off quickly before he could completely destroy my defences with that exasperated tone of his, "growing isn't as fun as I thought it would be. It hurts damn it!"

"Really." The dry tone told me Al wasn't taking this as seriously as I wanted.

"Yes really! You remember our first change right?"

"Yeah."

"It's like that but more drawn out."

Al winced and mumbled "that would be expected as the growth is rapidly accelerated, I read that potassium is good for growing pains, so maybe you should eat more bananas."

Tilting my head I shrugged slightly, humming to myself before replying "I will try just about anything at the moment if it will get these damn pains to go away for a while, hell I'd eat a whole waggon of bananas if that would help."

"Of course you would," Al deadpanned.

xxx

"So this sewing life alchemist made a talking chimaera?! That's amazing!"

"Yes it was the talk of the military when it happened and he is somewhat regarded as the authority on chimaera research, I figured he might be able to help you as it is rumoured he has extensive library's full of biological alchemy books and that is pretty close to what you're looking into."

Leaning back in my seat and rubbing my leg port, newly changed limbs ached something rotten, I watched the countryside blur past as we headed back towards east city so we could talk to this Shou Tucker guy who hopefully, wouldn't be a waste of our time. Although I suspected that Mustang would have tried to get us out of the city somehow anyway because of that Scar guy. Everyone was freaking out about him, what with the number of alchemists he's killed rising enough that Colonel bastard got moved to Central. The move had only happened about three days before I got kidnapped so I could kind of understand Mustang's paranoia but even if I understood it still chafed. I could look after myself damn it!

I could feel my eyelids drooping again and mentally groaned, it seemed like all I was doing lately was sleeping and frankly, it was beginning to irritate me. I was too tired to care that much right now though so with a put-upon sigh I drifted off to dreamland, hopefully by the time I wake up we will almost be at East City.

xxx

Rain was soaking through my pants, but I couldn't really find it in myself to care. I failed. Terribly. Now because of my mistakes poor Nina was gone, stuck with a fate worse than death and no one could do anything about it.

"Are you Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

Blinking up at the source of the deep rumbling voice, I found myself staring at the white-haired and very tanned man. A distinctive scar crossed his face hidden mostly by his sunglasses, and that was weird, why was he wearing sunglasses in this weather?

"That depends on who's asking."

"Brother!" Ignoring Al's hissed reprimand I watched the man, curious as to his reaction. The way the stranger flexed his hand suggested 'not well' would be the answer to that question.

Diving forwards I barely dodged the blow coming for me, the crackle of alchemy told me it was very good I had avoided that hit, especially when it collided with the fountain I was sitting on and turned it to rubble.

"Shit! Run Al!"

Sprinting with Al hot on my heels, we ducked and dodged as best we could, avoiding blows and scrambling to get away at every opportunity. Slapping my hands together I brought them down on the alleyways wall next to me, hoping it might slow this guy down a bit. The stone beams I transmuted were quickly deconstructed and then the man was right behind Al. Gasping I tried to shout a warning to my brother "AL!" But it was too late, the side of Al's armour exploded violently when the alchemically charged hand made contact with it.

Everything stuttered slightly when I saw that and red flooded my vision. Screaming in rage I blindly charged the moron that dared to attack my brother, however, said moron was dodging all of my attacks with apparent ease, which was just ticking me off even more. Suddenly he was right up in my face, one huge hand wrapped around my right arm. A flash of blue lighting and I was thrown back a few feet, most of my sleeve shredded with the attack. Grimacing and shaking off the weird shuddery feeling in my limbs I straightened up and grabbed my coat, ripping the rest of it off to prevent it getting in my way any more, also because it looked so badass when people did that and nothing Al said would ever change my mind.

"A metal arm..."

Clapping my hands together I slapped a palm down on my automail, lengthening it into a razor-sharp short blade and then levelling it at the heavily scarred man.

"I see, so you put your palms together to create the circle for you transmutations that is why you do not need written arrays. Then that arm will need to be the first thing to go!"

Hesitating for second in my surprise at someone actually understanding how I was able to use clap alchemy I just barely dodged his attack, stumbling back quickly as I tried to evade his reaching hands. A foot hooking behind my leg had me completely off balance and falling, arms flailing instinctively, making my right arm an easy target for Scar's attack and as bits of automail rained down on me I could only really be grateful that Winry hadn't replaced my arm yet, because she would be so pissed if it got broken that soon after she just put it on.

Fear and desperation had me kicking my legs, trying to scuttle backwards only to tip over and almost land on my face when I went to put my right hand down only for there to be nothing to put down.

Little embarrassing tears of frustration appeared in my eyes and I didn't have a spare hand to try and get rid of them with so I just ignored them as they tracked down the sides of my face, and when Scar asked if I had any last words all I could think of was Al. The words fell in a twisted and broken jumble, "not my brother! Not Al. Don't hurt my brother. Leave him alone. Kill me but leave him be."

And through all my panicked mumbling I could just make out Al's distraught screaming, telling me to run, to live but what he didn't know was there would be no living without him. Al was my rock, my sole reason for struggling on and not just giving up, I had to fix my mistakes and make it up to my brother I couldn't fix anything if I was dead, but maybe if I gave my life for him it would at least make up for some of my sins.

Something like pitty flickered across the scared man's face and then he was leaning forwards, blue alchemic light already dancing over his hand ready to end my life like so many before.

A loud BANG had him jolting back, the bullet just barely grazing the side of his face and sending his sunglasses clattering to the ground revealing a pair of angry crimson eyes. Ishvalen. Well, that certainly explained his motive for attacking state alchemists, revenge is always a good motivator. Slumping against the ground I couldn't really drum up the energy needed to stand and get out of the way, so I just laid there as Mustang and the MP's drove Scar away, unable to feel anything with the cold numbness in my limbs disguising any aches or pains.

Sucking in a sudden sharp and shuddery breath I remembered Al, he was hurt! He needed me! Lunging drunkenly to my feet I staggered towards the alley where Al was propped against the wall. As soon as I reached him I dropped to the ground, a painful throbbing now making its-self known in my legs, and reached for my brother only to get a painful whack to the head.

Clutching pathetically at my head I sent my brother a wounded look and he snarled "I told you to run! You cant just give up, brother! We have so much to live for, so much we still need to do and if you die we cant do any of that!"

Guilt quickly began chipping away at my conscious when I heard just how distraught Al was over my willingness to die for him, I didn't want to hurt him like that but I just couldn't bear the thought of him leaving me, I would rather be selfish and risk my own life than have to live on without him.

"Edward Elric! It gladdens me to see you safe and sound after an encounter with such a vicious enemy."

Tilting my head back I blinked slowly at the huge shadow of Major Alex Luis Armstrong looming over me, still shivering from the rain I opened my mouth to greet the man and was almost blinded by the sudden appearance of the man's bare chest as he whipped off his jacket and dropped over my shoulders. A wave of warmth from the body heat warmed clothing stopped me from complaining or refusing, instead, I just enjoyed how the thick fabric insulated me from the slight breeze that had picked up, "thanks, Major Armstrong."

"No problem young Elric, but I think it would be best if we hurried you to the hospital, yes?"

"What!? No! I'm fine! It's only my arm. I just need to call Winry and she'll bring me a new one, she should be finished with the one she was making for me anyway so no big deal. I don't need to go to the hospital!"

"Ah but better to be safe rather than sorry as they say Fullmetal." I didn't even notice when Colonel bastard got here but his words were pissing me off and all I could really reply with was enraged growling that no one would understand. Well actually Al probably got what I was on about but no one else would.

"Too bad brother I guess this is your punishment for not listening to me."

Shooting Al a betrayed and wounded look I made a couple more weak complaints and protests but ultimately it was decided, I would be going to the hospital...again. Hell, they probably have a room set aside for me by now maybe even with my name on it too.

Pouting and whining the whole way there, if for no other reason than to get on Mustang's nerves, we arrived at the hospital and were seen into a private room straight away. The nurse was shooting me this look, one that said 'I have seen you here far too many times' although she seemed mollified to some degree when I explained it was mostly just light scratches and blown up automail and that I was, for the most part, injury free. She still made me sit on the damn hospital bed and not move while she cleaned and dressed the small scratches and scrapes I picked up during my attempt to run away from Scar.

I was more aware of my surroundings now so I noticed as soon as Mustang entered my room, sitting up straighter I asked "how is Al?"

"Your brother is just fine, I left him with Major Armstrong discussing something about temperatures affecting transmutations, it did sound quite interesting but I dragged myself away and called your mechanic, I told her you were in the hospital and in need of the arm they're making so they need to get here as quickly as possible...Fullmetal why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh my god...You told Winry I'm in the hospital and need my new arm?! She's going to think the worst and panic and oh man she is going to kill me when she gets here for worrying her unnecessarily! And it wasn't even my fault!"

"My apologies then Fullmetal it wasn't my intention to worry your mechanic I just thought...although I guess the number of times you've been in the hospital for small injuries are vastly outnumbered by the larger ones, so it would make sense for her to assume...yes I do feel rather bad for you now Edward, oh well, do pass on my regards to Winry when she gets here, thank you."

And then the bastard fled back out the door he just swanned in through, evil pyromaniac that he is. Just comes sauntering in, drops a death sentence in my lap and then runs away like the coward he is.

* * *

 **AN: Okay here it is, I'm so sorry this took so long to get out! I ran into some real trouble about halfway through and had to rewatch some of the series to get into the feel of this since I've been watching a whole bunch of other animes recently and I just could get the characters right. I hope the last part of this didn't seem too weird, I was really tired when I wrote it and frankly, I can't really see a better way to word it all so I'm just gonna post it as it is. Thank you for hanging in there with me this far, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave me a review or a comment on your way out, they make my day.**

 **-SL xxx**


	5. Chapter 5

"Edward Elric so help me get down from there this instant!"

"No way! You're going to hit me with the wrench and I don't need another concussion, especially for something that wasn't my fault!" Glaring down at the raging Winry, I decided staying up here on top of the medicine cabinet was the wisest choice I have ever made.

"I don't care, now get down here and take it like a man."

I never took my eyes of the flailing hand holding the wrench as I replied with a vehement "hell no."

"I'll go get the Colonel..." She let the threat hang but I couldn't see the Colonel being able to reach me up here despite his longer reach and not to mention I didn't really care about punching him if it would keep me away from Winry's wrench, especially as this was his fault.

"I'll fight him! If he can even get his ancient butt up here that is."

Pausing to think for a second Winry amended her threat "I'll go get Al..."

Oh, that evil witch! She knew Al was the best solution here mainly because a) he could reach me up here no problem, now that I had repaired him using a sheet with an array drawn on it (it was deemed too much of a risk for Al to be limping around missing most of his chest plate and the damage wasn't severe enough to require clap alchemy) and b) I would never hit my baby brother outside of a spar, armour or no...which left me stuck with no other choice but to surrender. Shoulders slumping in defeat I grumbled, "fine, I'm coming down."

Winry didn't even wait for my feet to be on the floor before she brought the wrench down against the back of my head, so wailing dramatically I released my grip on the side of the cabinet and clutched at my head, sprawling out on the floor whining about my poor abused skull.

That particular scene was what Al and Colonel bastard walked in on.

Al didn't even wait for an explanation just jumped straight into lecture mode, "brother no. What did I tell you about climbing on the furniture?"

And because I'm a smartass and love pain I sat up and replied "I'm not on the furniture, I'm on the floor...after I fell off the furniture." As predicted the sass resulted in another whack to the back of the head from Winry. "Ow!"

"I can't believe I'm related to you."

Feeling a grin tugging at my lips I waved my hand dismissively and said "you may have gotten the brains of the family but I got the best genes in the looks department."

"Brother, please stop. Also, we both know you're smarter than me, you just apparently have no common sense."

And because the Colonel is a bastard he commented "I think you also need to be at least 5'5 before you can claim the 'good-looking' genes."

Rocketing to my feet I shouted in triumph and exclaimed "HA! I'm 5'6 and a half as of yesterday!"

"What?! No way."

I couldn't have fought the smug grin off my face if my life had depended on it, as I watched Mustang step closer to me and measure me with his eyes, obviously comparing my height to his own.

A quiet and somewhat disbelieving "what the hell?" confirmed my statement as he gawked at the fact I was now barely an inch shorter than him.

Ha so there! In your face stinking Colonel Bastard. I will be the tall one in this relationship soon...wait what? What relationship? What did I just think? Gah, my brain is clearly suffering from accelerated growth side effects.

Frowning and looking more than a little perturbed the Colonel spoke up "well regardless of your miraculous growth we have other priorities, like catching Scar."

"Oh yeah, do we have any leads on where he may have gone?"

"Not at the moment no. It would appear he's gone to ground." Mustang grumbled.

It occurred to me that this is the first time Scar had gone after an alchemist and not had it result in their death, he would likely lay low for some time which meant right now I was probably the safest I had ever been from this Scar guy since he showed up in Central. So now would be a good time to try and follow up on any leads Mustang might have.

"So Colonel bastard got any other leads on biological alchemists? Preferably not crazy ones this time."

I only just caught Winry's near silent mutter of "all alchemists are crazy," with my enhanced hearing.

Mustang on the other hand just sighed and rubbed his hand over his face and grumbled "no Tucker has been the only real promising alchemist that specialised in the medical field since Dr Marcoh..."

"Who's Dr Marcoh?"

"You don't know?" At my continued blank look, he elaborated "huh I thought you would have _heard_ of him at least. Anyway, Marcoh was a very talented alchemist working for the military during the Ishval conflict, they had him working on some secret project of some kind, I think they asked Kimberly to test it in the end though I heard rumours they had been thinking of asking me. Anyway, he hasn't been heard from since then and is from what I understand not well liked by the military high command anymore because of his...uh...because he left. Without permission. With almost all of his research."

"Oh, I guess it's not going to be easy to find him then." Heaving a despondent sigh I turned to Winry and said "okay well why don't we get this show on the road and then I can get to finding this guy and you can head home."

"Sure thing Ed, just try not to cry like a baby too much this time."

Gasping I shot my mechanic and childhood friend a betrayed look and squeaked "I do not cry, like a baby or otherwise!"

xxx

"Brother, why are we going to the library? I thought we were supposed to be trying to find this Dr Marcoh guy. Shouldn't we be asking around HQ or looking in the personnel records room?"

"Well those are good places to look, but I just wanted to check and see if this guy is mentioned in any of the books here. Or hopefully wrote one of them, you know how alchemists often code their work I'm hoping if this guy worked for the military at least some of his work had to have been published in the first library if nowhere else..."

"Oh! And if we can find his research we can crack the code and maybe find out what he was making for the military. Brother that's a really clever idea!"

"Jeez Al no need to sound so surprised, I can come up with a good plan on occasion."

"Of course brother, I just forget because so often you resort to punching things if it doesn't go the way you want it to."

"AL!" Reaching up and whacking the back of my hand against the hard metal of Al's shoulder, I scowled and stomped into the library ahead of my brother. A quick flash of my watch at the door and the guards waved me in, honestly, I probably needn't have bothered, I've spent so much of my free time here it's likely the guards know Al and me on sight.

"See brother resorting to violence once again."

"Oh shut up and help me look already would ya?"

Grumbling and ignoring the quiet snickers of my brother, I started into the bookshelves skimming the authors searching for anything written by one Dr Marco.

Almost four hours later and I was getting ready to call it quits when I spotted 'written by Tim Marcoh' scrawled along the spine of a rather fat looking book that was sticking out a fair bit from the rest of the books. Grinning I reached forwards and tugged the book free, barely noticing the picture of a cake on the front before half of the shelf's books started to tip and fall. Gasping and diving out of the way, I laid sprawled on the ground gawking in shock as Al rounded the bookcase and just stared in shock before reaching out and picking up the top book. The cover of which had some kind of covered dish on it and also proclaimed it to have been written by one Tim Marcoh.

"Huh. Well I guess we found his notes then brother."

"Uh yeah and they nearly killed me damn-it!"

xxx

Three days. It took me three days to decode the research, even with Al's help the pace had been ridiculously slow. This Marco guy had not been messing around when he coded his work. There had been several trips to the personal rooms to snoop for information on Marco to try and help us decode his research, with mixed results.

Even worse than how long it had taken to decode the research was what we had found out. He had been making Philosopher stones for the government. Philosopher stones which are made from people. So now even if we should find a stone (there was no way we would be making one!) we couldn't use it, how could we justify using a stone made from people to fix our mistakes.

Grimacing and thumping my head against the desk I wondered just what we could do now, this had been our only hope and now we had nothing, absolutely nothing left to go on baring the tiny hope stemming from Al's ability to shift still which implied there was still some kind of connection to his body.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" Slamming my fist repeatedly into the wall as I cursed, I ignored Al as he tried to get me to calm down and instead focused on how shitty my luck was that the one thing we had pinned all out hopes on for fixing Al was now no longer an option, unless we wanted to sacrifice our morals completely in the process.

"People Al! The stone is made of people! How are we supposed to fix you now?"

"It's...It's okay brother, we can find another way. We _will_ find another way! And we'll do it without using a philosophers stone."

There was a brief pause as I stared at my baby brother, marvelling at his endless optimism something I could only hope to keep up with due to my sheer stubborn mule-headedness. "Yeah. Okay yeah, we will! I'll fix you real soon Al don't you worry."

"Us brother. _We_ will fix _us_."

"Right." Offering Al a slightly self-deprecating smile I nodded and tried to look hopeful.

 **xxx Roy pov xxx**

Grimacing and rubbing at the bridge of my nose in a vain attempt to reduce the gradually increasing ache present behind my eyes, I refocused my attention on the report in front of me.

"The First Branch Library was burned down?"

"Yep."

Sighing I glanced up at Hughes where he was leaning on the front of my desk and asked "and this is of interest to me because...?"

"Ed and Al have been spending a lot of time in there and evidence suggests the library was set on fire purposefully..."

"You think it could have been another attempt on Ed's life?"

"Weeeeeeeeell its a possibility and work in investigations is slow at the moment, so it certainly wouldn't be a bother to do some more digging and get back to you with what we find out."

"Thank you Hughes, just be careful."

"Sure thing Roy!" Waving and practically skipping out of the office now he had a new pet project, I couldn't quite contain my sigh of relief at Hughes timely exit.

No pictures today.

Still, it was troubling for Ed to have been targeted like this, again. A tiny stab of guilt reminded me that it was my fault the two boys where involved so heavily with the military in the first place and that should anything happen to them, it would be entirely on my shoulders that the blame would rest.

A loud bang had my head shooting up, nerves just a tad raw and I was relieved when Edward's loud voice could be made out from the other side of the door, revealing the noise to just be the brothers checking in, making a nuisance of themselves and distracting my team. Smiling slightly I decided I could use a good distraction right now.

Standing from my desk I sauntered over to the door and tugged it open, pausing in surprise and trying to take in exactly what was going on because Ed was leaning against the office door panting and looking distinctly dishevelled. It was...distracting in a way I hadn't anticipated.

"What exactly are you doing Edward?"

Glancing up at the sound of my voice I had the pleasure of seeing Ed's eyes widen in surprise and then watch as his whole body slumped to the ground as he mumbled something.

Raising an eyebrow I traded a quick look with Riza to see if she caught that, a silent head shake was my answer. Humming I said "could you repeat that I don't think anyone had a chance of hearing that."

Ed whined, high pitched and embarrassed sounding as he repeated himself "...mpf was attacked..." a cold lance of fear shot through me till Ed continued "...by _fans_."

His disgust was clearly displayed in the tone he described his new admirers...rabid admirers? The state of his clothes suggested it was a bit more than simple fans, his signature red coat was missing, his black under-jacket was ripped and no longer closed, the neckline of his vest looked to have been stretched beyond repair and the leather pants he favoured were also badly damaged in fact from the looks of it the right pant leg from the knee down had been torn clean off!

"What brother means to say is that apparently he is now considered attractive by the vast majority of the female population and was chased here after someone recognised him and then proclaimed that 'puberty finally hit the kid hero alchemist' and 'he got hot damn fast.' They cornered us just before we made it into command and some of the MPs had to help me prise brother free of them and then he started running after one of the female officers said something about his looks. It was honestly hilarious!" Amusement could be clearly heard in the younger Elric brothers echoing voice.

"AL!"

I admit part of me wanted to laugh, especially at the way Ed had slouched against the door looking both horrified, embarrassed and just a tiny bit smug, however, the larger part of me was preoccupied with the hot burning sensation in my gut. The emotion it represented was one I was not overly familiar with but despite the newness of this emotion, I was fairly certain it was in fact jealousy I was feeling, which was...odd.

"Perhaps Fullmetal you could use a change of clothes?"

Peering down at himself and apparently only just realising how ruffled his appearance was he grimaced and agreed quietly "uh yeah, but I dont...ugh."

Spotting the hints of distress I pinpointed the cause as most likely to be a lack of spare clothes to change into, easy enough to fix. "I have some spare clothes you can use if you need to."

"Um Cheif I don't think your clothes with fit Boss..."

Havoc trailed off as Ed finally stood up and everyone realised just what had caught the woman's attention. Ed was tall and ripped. Don't get me wrong it wasn't like he was suddenly built like a house or anything, he was still lean however he was now pushing 6 ft and it looked really good on him everything seemed to have filled out a bit and his shoulders looked broader but not ridiculously so. Overall it was a shocking change. Annoyingly Havoc was probably right that my clothes wouldn't fit Ed, they would likely be too short on him. Oh the horror, Edward was taller than me! This was awful, although he really did look good...Ah what am I thinking?! Edward is my underage subordinate! I should not be thinking these things!

Clearing my throat I turned to Falman and asked "Falman would you happen to have any spare clothes Fullmetal could borrow?"

Still looking somewhat stunned the Warrant Officer nodded and murmured "yes sir, I have workout clothes and a spare uniform in my gym locker."

Nodding I gestured to Edward and said "you can go with Falman and grab a change of clothes and get dressed in the locker room or Falman could get them and bring them here and you can change in my office."

Ed hesitated and then said "I'll change here if that's okay?"

Tilting my head I replied with a simple "that's fine" and then signalled for Falman to go and get the clothes, while I tried very hard not to think about how Ed had looked when I had last seen him four days ago, shirtless on the hospital bed as Winry attached his new arm, and imagine his new stature in the same position because it might just be four inches but damn if they didn't make a difference.

* * *

 **AN: I don't even know what I was doing with this chapter, it's largely filler and it just took so very very long to write. The writer's block hit me so hard with this chapter and it took forever to get done, but I finally got down to business yesterday and built myself a blanket fort and bashed out the last 1000 words.**

 **Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and don't hate me too much for taking so long to get this posted. I have no idea when the next chapter will be out probably in March or April if I'm being honest with myself, but hey keep your eyes peeled you never know, thanks for reading drop me a review on your way out if you feel like it.**

 **-SL** xxxx


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